"When Gods Wake" by Kendall Kirkbride

The gods have been dead for centuries. Caldris built an empire from their remains.

Dr. Sera Voss has spent eleven years studying the anatomy of Aestra, the dead god beneath the city. She knows every vessel, chamber, and impossible structure carved into the divine body. More importantly, she knows dead things don’t move.

Then a cutter dies inside a chamber that shouldn’t have been able to kill him—and something shifts beneath Sera’s hand.

Sera orders the excavation shut down, but the Crown wants its bloodstone, the Ministry wants an explanation, and neither is willing to accept an answer that threatens the industry keeping Caldris alive. As the evidence becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss, Sera is pulled deeper into the secrets buried within Aestra and closer to Ronan Vale, a man who challenges every boundary she has fought to maintain.

Someone knows what is happening beneath the city. Someone has worked very hard to keep it hidden. And if Sera is right, Aestra may not be the only god who was never truly dead.

"When Gods Wake" is Book One of The Dead Gods series by Kendall Kirkbride, an adult-themed dark fantasy published in September 2026.

About the Author

Kendall Kirkbride is an Ohio-based independent author writing psychological suspense, crime thriller, gothic mystery, and dark fantasy. Her published works include The Quiet Between Us, Book One of the Elliott Mercer series, and When Gods Wake, Book I of the planned five-book Dead Gods series. She is currently developing future installments of both series.

"Into the Undercastle" by Alexander Dawnrider

The vornuks are coming. King Valeria has four days to save his kingdom.

He leads his people into the Undercastle — a fortress sealed over a century ago, by a mad king under penalty of death, but no one knows why. No one questions the iron braces on the doors.

They should have.

Fisherman Aedan and archer Savanah soon discover why. Something waits in the deep. Something that shouldn't exist. And the iron braces weren't meant to keep invaders out. They were meant to keep it in.

The vornuks were never the real threat.

Dark epic fantasy where the only thing worse than invasion is what you flee into.

"Into the Undercastle" is the first book of the Shadow Arcanist trilogy by Alexander Dawnrider.

About the Author

Alexander Dawnrider grew up reading copious amount of science-fiction and fantasy. Wherever he went, there was a thick paperback in his hands, or stashed in his satchel, or waiting beside his bed. He absorbed the works of Asimov, Heinlein, Tolkien, Foster, and countless others.

Now Alexander dwells in a lofty tower of a northern province, endeavoring to contribute to that fantastical world with his own ideas. When he isn't busy madly scribbling away on the scraps of parchment that cross his desk, you can find him enjoying a grilled-cheese sandwich and tinkering with his time machine. His companions are an assortment of gargoyles and a small dragon named Sea Glimmer.

New Book Covers for "The Adventures of Wrathgar" by Charles Moffat

Charles Moffat has updated the book covers for his dark epic heroic fantasy series: "The Adventures of Wrathgar". This includes replacing the old logo with a new logo, plus a new layout that may remind readers of the old Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books from the 1980s and 1990s.

For example here is the old book cover next to the new book cover for "The Assassin's Trail".

The Adventures of Wrathgar is a long series of novels (plus one novelette) featuring heroic fantasy, dark fantasy and epic fantasy set within the kingdom of Korovia. The series follows Wrathgar and his friends/comrades on a variety of adventures involving assassins, bounty hunters, dark magic, ghosts, giants, murder, necromancy, undead, a realistic slow burn love triangle, and deadly secrets.

Many of Charles Moffat's books will be on sale (or free) during Late October for his annual Halloween Sale. Just visit amazon.com/author/moffat to see what books are currently on sale or free.

The Assassin's Trail

The Blizzard's Daughter

The Coven's Wolves

The Demon's Sacrifice

The Exorcist's Dagger

The Frost Giant's Tomb

Bonus Novelette

The Sunken Castle

"Godsvault" by N. C. Jacobs

Godsvault is Book One of the Adventures of Winterborne, and is a dark epic fantasy written by N. C. Jacobs.

The dead of the North do not rot. They stand.

Mid-errand, mid-prayer, three hundred years patient, kept by the winter that took half the world. The living call it the Pale. The church calls it the god’s keeping. The delvers who walk among the standing dead to fetch back deeds and heirlooms call it work.

Azgardia of the Winterborne is a frostworker: winter-eyed, chartered, careful, and in charge. Her company is five names on one paper, answerable at law for one another’s debts, deeds, and remains. A mender who keeps the honest ledger. A warden struck from her forest’s rolls, who is the company’s wall. A huntmaster carrying his drowned hold’s last bow, and the company’s laughter. A point-man the Pale itself gave back, who counts the doors and opens them.

Then the church hires them to find what lies beneath the buried cathedral-city of Matins, and the road north begins keeping its own accounts. Because the dead are not being kept. They are being harvested. And the paper trail runs south, in a careful hand, to warm rooms that have been billing the north for three hundred years.

Some debts the church collects. This one is about to be audited. 

 

About the Author

N.C. Jacobs writes epic fantasy about professional crews, cold ledgers, and the debts that outlive the people who signed for them. Godsvault, his debut novel, was born at a table with his longtime gaming guild and is written the way they play: banter after cost, and nobody left on the ice. He also writes practical dog-training nonfiction drawn from years as a working K9 handler, including Your Dog Isn't Stubborn. You're Unclear. 

Palefall, Book Two of The Adventures of Winterborne, is coming. 

"The Dragon Eye Gem Affair" by A. D. Rider

The Dragon Eye Gem Affair is a Gaslamp Romantic Fantasy by A. D. Rider.

A towering bodyguard. A charming thief half her height. And a stolen jewel that could send them both to the gallows.

At six feet two inches, Calista Temira is the tallest bodyguard in Gravenmore. Truitt Williams barely reaches her waist.

And he just stole the one thing she was hired to protect.

Calista takes the jobs no one else wants — because at her height, most clients see a curiosity, not a fighter. Guarding the priceless Dragon Eye Gem should have been simple.

One night. One jewel. Easy coin.

Until a silver-tongued rogue with an infuriating grin swipes the gem right out from under her nose — and leaves her to take the blame.

Now Calista stands accused of being the legendary thief known as the Grey Shadow, a crime that carries a one-way trip to the gallows.

Her only chance to clear her name is the very man who ruined her life.

But Truitt Williams is hiding secrets of his own… and trusting him may be the most dangerous gamble of all.

Because in a city of fog, heists, and whispered legends, falling for the wrong man doesn’t just break your heart.

It gets you hanged.

 

About the Author

A. D. Rider was born in the wrong century, so now he explores other times through writing. He specialises in gaslamp romance fantasy adventures. Blending elements of Victorian-era intrigue, magic, and heartfelt romance, he crafts stories that transport readers to enchanting worlds filled with daring escapades and passionate encounters. When he isn’t penning his next adventure, he can be found spending time with his dogs and enjoying nature as they drag him along.